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Vocabulary and Grammar-1, Reading Skills Certificate in Communication Skill (CCS) CCS-02 Reading Skills Block – 4 Vocabulary and Grammar-1 UNIT-1 The Verb Phrase-1: Lexical, Auxiliary and Phrasal Verb UNIT-2 The Verb Phrase-2: Tense, Aspect and Modality UNIT-3 Dictionaries This course material is designed and developed by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. OSOU has been permitted to use the material. 1 UNIT-1: The Verb Phrase-1: Lexical, Auxiliary And Phrasal Verbs Structure 1.0 Objective 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Lexical Verbs 1.3 Auxiliary Verbs 1.4 Phrasal Verbs 1.5 Let Us Sum Up 1.6 Suggested Reading 1.7 Answers 1.0 OBJECTIVE In this unit we shall identify the elements of the verbal group (or verb phrase) and note their properties. 1.1 INTRODUCTION The verb can be said to be the most important element of a sentence because the structure of a sentence depends largely on the verb. The difference between the sentences He laughed/ and He built a house is mainly that the first sentence has the verb laugh, which needs nothing to complete its meaning, but the second sentence has build, which requires an object to complete its meaning: what did he build?-A house. The difference between laugh and built is lexical which means that the two verbs represent different meanings or activities. Now look at the sentence: He is building a house. We have once again the item build but it is now preceded by is (a form of be). As you can see the meanings of the two sentences. 1) He is building a house. 2) He has built a house. are not the same, though they represent the same activity. Here the difference is a grammatical one, represented by the structure of the verbal group in the two sentences. The difference in the meaning of these two sentences arises from the auxiliaries (is, has) and the forms of the verbs (-ing and -en forms) in them. That they also have a common shared meaning, is because they share the same lexical verb, build. 2 Thus we can distinguish two elements in the verbal group; the auxiliary and the lexical verb. A special class of lexical verbs is seen in 3) We shall back you up in your efforts. Compare it with 4) We shall support you in your efforts. You will notice that the two sentences mean the same; the only difference is that while (4) has the lexical verb support, (3) has the combination back up, which means much the same as support. Combinations like back up (where the verbal meaning is given by a combination of more than one element) are called phrasal verbs. This unit is organized as follows: in Section 1.2 we shall take a brief look at lexical verbs; in 1.3 we shall study the auxiliaries, and in 1.4 look at phrasal verbs. 1.2 LEXICAL-VERBS Lexical verbs are items like build, write, laugh, sleep, etc. They normally indicate various types of activities. A verbal group must have a lexical verb. Without a lexical verb no verbal group is possible: cf. the difference between has been and has been writing/reading/talking, etc. Write, read, and talk are lexical verbs. Notice also that in the verbal group the lexical verb (Also called the full verb in school/traditional grammars) comes last. (Ex. Has written, will/shall have written, has been writing) Some lexical verbs require nothing more to complete their meanings. These are the intransitive verbs (Ex. cry, laugh, sleep, snore, etc. as in 'They cry, She laughs, Everyone sleeps but Gopu snores) Other lexical verbs must be followed by some noun phrase to complete their meanings: He wrote a novel. She told us a story. Write and tell are the transitive verbs. There are literally thousands of transitive verbs. Among transitive verbs, some require two noun phrases to complete their meanings: Give Mary a book. Usually these verbs have an alternative construction where one of the noun phrases appears as a prepositional phrase (Give a book to Mary). The preposition may be to or for, depending on the verb. (She made John a cup of tea/She made a cup of tea for John). Some other verbs are immediately followed by a prepositional phrase: I agree with you; You can depend on John; Congratulations on your success. Some of the verbs which are followed by a noun phrase can also be followed by a clause: I know John. I know that he is coming. I am expecting Mary. I expect that Mary will come. The most important (at least the most frequent) lexical verb in the language (it is also an auxiliary, as we shall see) is be with its different forms - are , was, were ....Strictly 3 speaking be is neither transitive nor intransitive. Unlike intransitive verbs it can be followed by a noun phrase but there is a difference. A sentence with a transitive verb as in Tagore wrote Gitanjali. has an alternative construction as in Gitanjali was written by Tagore. (This alternative construction is said to be a passive.) But no passive is possible with a sentence containing be. He is a surgeon. * A surgeon is been by him. There are other properties of be which make it quite different from all other verbs. Similar is the case with have (which is also both a lexical and an auxiliary verb). Raju has a computer. * A computer is had by Raju. The properties distinguished above are properties in respect of what can follow a verb. As for the verb itself, the lexical verb in English has six forms. Ex. The six forms for the verb wait are. 4) 1) Stem wait 2) Stem + s waits 3) Stem + ing waiting 4) Stem + ed waited 5) Stem + en waited 6) To + stem to wait The stem form is also called 'base' or 'dictionary' form. (It is the form in which the verb is entered in the dictionary). The stem + s form is the present tense form (in the third person singular). The stem + ing form is also known as the 'present participle' form. The stem + ed is the form of the verb in the past tense.(A majority of the verbs have this form in the past tense.) Hence '-ed' is used as a symbol for past tense. Actually a few verbs have the base form for the past also (e.g. cut, put, cost) or show a different pattern of change ( write-wrote , go-went, speak-spoke, etc). The stem + en form is also called the 'past participle' form. (Here again verbs like cut and put show no change; wait itself shows the same form as in the past.) But again the majority of verbs do have this form: speak- spoken, write-written . (On verb morphology, see also Unit 15 in Block 3. The last form (to + stem) is the infinitival form (You will find more on this below). Here again, sometimes the base form is used for the infinitive. (e.g. We can say either I helped her to wash the clothes/ or 4 without using to: I helped her wash the clothes. Note, however that this optional use of to is possible with only a few lexical verbs). Lexical verbs generally but not always have these six forms. However, phrasal verbs (being a sub-class of lexical verbs) also generally have all the six forms. Finite and Non-finite Of the forms of the verb, some are called finite and some non-finite. Finite forms are those which make predication: that is, a statement about a subject e.g. Wait here/Time waits for none/I waited for you at the station. The forms waiting, to wait cannot make predication: to wait for the bus/waiting for the bus. These expressions require some other finite verb to make predication. I have to wait for Mary/We were waiting outside the hall. Have, were are finite forms and help make the sentences complete in meaning. Forms which cannot, in themselves, make predication are called non-finite forms. The non-finite forms are: the infinitive (e.g. to wait), the present participle (e.g. waiting) and the past participle (e.g. waited). Since the past form of wait is the same as its past participle, we can take a verb like break to see that the past participle is a non-finite form and cannot make predication. He broke the chair, but not *He broken the chair. The finite form of the verb can make predication because it contains tense: either present or past. In contrast the non-finite forms dc not contain tense. (See the example above.) Finally, the finite for111 shows ‘agreement’ with the subject. This can be seen in I am learning French. We are learning Spanish. He is learning English. learning (a non-finite form) remains the same in all the three sentences. But the forms of be are different in each sentence, depending on the subject. Only the forms am, are, is show 'agreement' with the subject. The finite form always comes first in the verbal group. The rest ofthe verbal elements, if any, are all non-finite. 5) He has been working on a research project. (Has is the only finite verb here: it is the third person singular form in the present tense of the verb have; been = be + en (past participle); working = work + ing (present participle); both are non-finite forms. Check Your Progress 1 5 1) In the following passage list all the finite lexical verbs.
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